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Category Archives: Soccer

With Sportscenter on in the background this morning, and we’re waiting for some MLS Cup coverage. Never heard it; never saw it.. ESPN – you fail. Again.

Plenty of analysis on mediocre NFL Quarterbacks, reactions to the College Football playoffs. Plenty of noise about QBs who aren’t even playing – Manzeil and RGIII. But three good minutes on the championship of Major League Soccer? Not saying it wasn’t in there somewhere, but I sure didn’t see it.

And it’s not like they were lacking stories… Back and forth match, extra time heroics from Keane, and Landon’s final game! Continue reading →

TV executives know we’re home and watching, and they oblige us… Lots of sports programming available for consumption, and in Beemsville that meant Fighting Illini basketball the last two evenings. Nice wins over Indiana State and Baylor to take the Las Vegas Invitational tourney. This hoops team is Aggressive with a big ‘A’, allowing them to win even when shooting poorly. Very fun to watch, and we’ll break them down later.

This morning we have some English Premier League. No games really stand out this weekend, but hey, it’s on. Then we have Illinois vs. Northwestern at 11:00. Two 5-6 teams battling for a low-level bowl… Battling for the Abe Lincoln LOL Hat… Battling for state supremacy (not really, because NIU is better than either)… It’s the Illinois Pension-Reform Bowl. Whoever wins, the citizenry come out a little poorer… And yes, most likely, Tim Beckman’s job hangs in the balance. Like any true Illini fan, I’ll be rooting hard to beat Fitzee and the ‘Cats, but as an objective watcher of the program, I won’t be too sad if a loss initiates a coaching change.

This afternoon we have the second leg of MLS Eastern Conference Playoffs: New England vs. New York in Foxborough. The Red Bulls are down 2-1, needing some goals, and their top scorer is out with yellow cards. Can the old warhorses, Henry and Cahill summon forth the magic again? Tomorrow we get Seattle vs. LA from Century Link Field in the Western Conference. The Galaxy hold the 1-0 advantage here and looked much the better team in the first leg, but Seattle are so tough at home. LA will have to score to close this out because the Sounders are going to get some goals. Should be a fun one: Dempsey, Martins, and Yedlin v. Donovan, Keane, and Gonzalez.

Tonight at 6:00 CST on ESPN, Landon Donovan will suit up for the US Men’s National Team a final time. This match against Ecuador in Hartford, CT, will feature mostly younger, fringe-type players due to MLS’s proximity to the play-offs. But Landon will be there, for about 30 minutes or so, according to the media.

Don’t be surprised if he scores or assists in that time. He may be about to retire, but at 32 he still has a lot to offer – among the MLS leaders for assists this season – still capable of that burst of speed or game-changing play. And as the USA’s career goal scoring and assists leader, as the face of the sport in this country as MLS has grown to legitimacy and more Americans have embrace soccer, you’re going to hear a lot of gushing on the broadcast, ESPN, and elsewhere.

For a lot of folks in my peer group, Landon’s career has coincided with our fandom. He was the up-and-comer after the 1998 World Cup, on the big stage in Korea, and the guy at the top of the other team’s clipboard for the next twelve years. We wanted him in Brazil this summer, and I still believe we could have done better down there with LD in the 10 shirt. Continue reading →

A friend and I have been coaching rec league soccer at the YMCA for our boys the last two years. This summer we decided to try and take some of our players and form a competitive team to play in local soccer tournaments in our area. We have a good central group of kids, and the the thought is we can find a handful of other good players from the Y teams in our age group to fill out our roster.

So far so good. We decided to sign up for the Illinois Class E Coaching License – a two day course focused on ages 9-12, sanctioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation. We figure this will help us improve our training sessions and overall coaching. This weekend we’ll be at the course, but prior to that we had prep work to complete.

The prep work consists of three main assignments: Rules of the Game/Referee Introduction, Concussion Awareness, and Coaching Philosophy/Team Management.

A couple of days since the USA Soccer team exited the World Cup – beat by a better team in Belgium, but defiant and unbroken in the end. Everyone has acknowledged the brilliance of Tim Howard, the heart and drive of the field players, as well as their lack of possession and finishing. As much as the Team America was outplayed on the ball by Beligum, had Wondolowski and Dempsey scored on a couple of key chances, we could well be talking about one more game against Messi and Argentina. SI.com’s Grant Wahl summed up the match very nicely (as usual).

Meanwhile, as mass attention begins to drift away from the team, the die hard American fans have begun the debate on strategy and tactics. We made it out of the Group of Death – unexpected by most. But we did so playing typically gritty, defensive-minded and opportunistic soccer. This is not how Jurgen Klinsmann said we would play. Did we make it to the knock-out rounds because of the coaching staff’s approach and preparations, or in spite of their tactics and roster selections? Continue reading →

“Zusi and Bradley get Tim Howard. The other guys get Brad Guzan. Three-on-three.”

“Why Landon?” I asked him.

“Well, you keep saying he should be there with the team…”

That’s my boy! For the record, I took Dempsey, Donovan, and Guzan.

This discussion took place out of the blue last week. Before the World Cup, my eight-year-old son barely knew the U.S. Soccer team. He knew a few of them, but now he knows the entire roster. He’s interested, engaged. He and his sister sat and watched nearly all of each group stage match – two of them out at sports bars/restaurants, one in town. He can’t get enough World Cup.

What a game! What a weird, wonderful, and at times frightening game! Some will claim the USA turned back the clock about 30 years with a gritty, ugly, gut-check win. Some will note that Juergen’s tactics and substitutions pretty much worked to a T. And down at the Dublin Pub, with most of our YMCA U8 Soccer Team looking on (occasionally), we were starting to get a very bad feeling when Ghana continued to whip in crosses and come closer with their outside blasts. The tying goal seemed inevitable… And then Graham Zusi to John Brooks…

Juergen’s success with his subs continues… With Germany’s pasting of Portugal, the Group of Death suddenly seems navigable – even with the injuries. So on to five points about this opening World Cup Win…